Chapter Six of the Writing Fiction novel focuses on dialogue. Dialogue has always been one of my favorite parts of a story or novel. I loved that this chapter helps to make dialogue more believable and less boring. It is deceiving sometimes...
CHAPTER 6
DIALOGUE: TALKING IT UP
By Allison Amend
Dialogue is the key to a successful date, and, I would argue, to successful fiction.
Dialogue is what keeps you coming back for more. The characters' interactions provide the scintillation that brings the reader to the story, and more often than not dialogue is a key part of this interaction.
The characters are the ones in the story interacting with each other, so they are the people, not the author, who have the power to affect other characters. Perhaps the best way to let the reader really see the characters is to let them talk to each other. If it's done well; the reader will forget that the people they are reading about are the writer's creation. The characters will assume a life of their own.
DIALOGUE EXPLAINED
Dialogue is everything in fiction that isn't narration. In other words, it's the stuff between the quotation marks--what the characters "say."
There is no official rule for how much dialogue to use in fiction. Most stories find a balance between dialogue and narration. Switching between the two gives a work of fiction a nice diversity. Narration tends to have a dense feel, whereas dialogue--which reads quickly and offers lots of white space--has a zippier feel.
There are two fundamental ways a writer can reveal an moment in a story--summary or scene. Summary is where the action is summarized, or "told." In contrast, scene depicts the moment in real time, showing us exactly what transpires. Scenes are where dialogue makes its appearance.
It’s entirely possible to have scene with no dialogue, where the thrust is conveyed through just physical action, but more often than not, dialogue will play a central role in a scene.
Dialogue tends to draw lots of attention to itself so you want to make sure you are dialoguing moments of real significance, be it character development, plot advancement, or a moment of extreme drama.
Key moments in a story lend themselves to being portrayed in dialogue. If a moment is of real significance, the reader likes to be there, sitting front and center, watching and hearing.
THE ILLUSION OF REALITY
Everybody talks. Well, practically everybody. One would think that dialogue would be one of the easiest aspects of fiction to pull off. Good dialogue is deceptively difficult to write.
Your first task is to ensure that your dialogue sounds real
Nowadays dialogue tends to sound like actual people conversing with one another. What they say shouldn’t seem rehearsed or robotic.
The best way to get a feel for realistic dialogue is by listening to people talk. Being able to listen and mimic is the best preparation for writing realistic dialogue.
Two little tips for realistic dialogue. Contractions are good. And though writers are instructed to avoid cliches, characters often use hackneyed phrasing.
But simply capturing the sound of lifelike dialogue isn’t enough. Actually, the realism of good dialogue is something of an illusion. Fictional dialogue needs to have more impact, focus, relevance, than ordinary conversation.
Dialogue has to seem real and yet not be too real and also do something important.
YOUR TURN:
Recall a dialogue exchange you had in the past few days. Do your best to write it down being faithful to what was actually said. Don’t airbrush out the boring parts or make the dialogue snappy. Pretend you’re transcribing a conversation from a tape recorder. Just write each character’s name, then put the dialogue beside the name. (Jack: Hey, what’s going on, man?) Then rewrite the dialogue exchange, this time making it concise and dramatically interesting. Why don’t you fictionalize the names this time and feel free to embellish a bit.
DIALOGUE CONVENTION
Convention is the fulfillment of an established expectation.
Double quotation marks signal to the reader that someone is speaking.
Occasionally, authors break with convention, foregoing double quotation marks for single ones, dashes, brackets, or even nothing.
Usually dialogue dedicates one paragraph per speaker, no matter how short the speech.
The fact that each line of dialogue gets its own paragraph highlights the importance and makes it easier to follow the flow of the conversation.
One of the major conventions of dialogue is the use of tags. In dialogue, most writers add speech tags, also known as attributions, so that the reader can follow who’s saying what. Said is the most frequently used tag. In fact, you could use nothing but said and probably no one would notice. Said becomes invisible. You can use verbs other than said, but you want to make sure they don’t seem forced or get distracting.
However, it can be dangerous to veer too far from the said paradigm. It’s tempting to get out the thesaurus and have your characters utter, express, state, announce, articulate, voice, etc., but overuse will provide a trampoline effect, making it seem as though all of our characters are springing five feet in the air when they speak.
Similarly, adverbs in speech tags tend to make the author seem amateurish. Occasional, adverbs are useful, but use them sparingly; they can draw attention to themselves in the wrong way.
Also, exclamation points in dialogue tend to make statements sound like lovesick teenage e-mail. Try at all costs to avoid using them!
When you attribute speech, make sure you place the tags in a logical or effective place.
Tags aren’t the only way of indication who is speaking. You can let the reader know who is talking to who by having a character say someone’s name.
Another effective way to attribute speech is to link an action with the dialogue. Or a thought.
Attribution for every single line of dialogue is not strictly necessary, as long as it’s perfectly clear who is speaking when.
STAGE DIRECTIONS
Adding physical action to dialogue can help bring a scene to life. You can tell someone’s personality by how they interact with others. All of these gestures, interspersed with dialogue, give a much more subtle and imaginative idea of the character.
By mixing in narration details with your dialogue, you can shed light on your characters and give the scene a real physical presence.
Similarly, thoughts can be used in stage directions, give us an extra dimension.
Stage directions are especially useful when there is a conflict between what a character says and what a character feels or thinks.
Also add action or thought if the tone of the words spoken needs to be exclaimed. “I hate you,” she said slamming the front door. vs “I hate you,” she said, playfully hitting him on the arm.
On the flip side, there is such a thing as too many stage directions. The reader doesn’t really need to know every single time the character shifts his weight or scratches behind his ears or thinks about doing the laundry.
YOUR TURN:
Take the second version of the dialogue exchange you did for the previous exercise (the fictionalized one). Using the same dialogue you wrote, rewrite the exchange, this time adding in tas and stage directions. Your tags should make it clear who is speaking and your stage directions should offer an added dash of nuance or meaning. Hint: if may help if one of both of the characters are engaged in a physical action. Then marvel at how well you’ve transformed real life into an interesting clip of fictional dialogue.
INDIRECT DIALOGUE
So far, we’ve been discussing direct dialogue—where the actual lines spoken are given. But there’s another option and that’s indirect dialogue—where the dialogue is summarized rather than quoted, appearing in summary rather than scene. Indirect dialogue can come in handy when the gist of what was said is more important than the actual dialogue.
So, in addition to asking yourself if a moment should be dialogue or not, you can also ask yourself if direct or indirect dialogue is the best choice for that particular moment.
YOUR TURN:
Return to the dialogue exchange you wrote in the previous exercise. This time convey the gist of it with just a few sentences of summarized dialogue. In addition to conveying the facts, hit at the character personalities and/or tension in the exchange. If you wish to include a line or two of the actual words spoken, do so. Then determine if this particular exchange would be better served by dialogue or summarized dialogue in a work of fiction—a choice you will always have.
DIALOGUE AND CHARACTER
Perhaps the best thing about dialogue is that it allows characters to speak for themselves. You don’t really know someone in real life until you’ve talked to them and heard them talk to you; the same principle applies to fiction. It’s on the basis of what comes out of his mouth that you decide whether you like the person and want to spend more time with him.
Every person in life speaks in a somewhat unique fashion, and the same should be true for fictional characters. Just as you look for unique traits in your characters, look for the uniqueness in how they speak. Seek out the distinctive ways that characters express themselves when they open their mouths.
Ask yourself questions about how your characters might talk.
In addition to getting a sense of who characters are, dialogue can also convey a strong sense of the interaction between characters.
Here’s a tip: tension between characters will almost always notch up the interest level of our dialogue.
YOUR TURN:
Jessica, a somewhat stuff university professor (you pick her field), stops at a gas station in some backwater place. As she fills her tank, Alvin, the attendant, approaches her. He is an uneducated sort (though not necessarily dim) and, being both bored and friendly, he wants to chat. Jessica would rather not chat but she also doesn't want to alienate Alvin because she would like directions to a nearby restaurant that won’t be too greasy or ghastly. Write a scene between Jessica dn Alvin, using dialogue, tags, and stage directions. Your main goal is to capture the flavor of these two people through how they speak.
SUBTEXT
Our society may be excellent at talking, but we have trouble communicating. People often don’t say what they mean. Sometimes they say the opposite of what they mean. They hide insults in sugary language. They don’t listen. They mishear. They don’t answer. They remain silent.
Capitalizing on miscommunication improves fictional dialogue because it makes it more true to life. Misunderstandings can also add tension to the dialogue exchange.
Though you are unlikely to use subtitles with your dialogue, subtext can be enormously effective in fiction.
Having thus emphasized that dialogue should not just be a representation of everyday speech, I should add that there is real pleasure to be had in the way people actually talk, their confusion, their circumlocution, their mistakes, misunderstandings, repetitions, and their small talk. But in fictional dialogue you want to make sure the poor communication serves a dramatic purpose that is understood by the reader. When you achieve this, your dialogue will take on layers of realism and depth.
A layered conversation is the difference between what seems to be a stage-set version of a house and a genuine lived-in home.
YOUR TURN:
Envision a husband and wife or any other kind of romantic pair. Give them names and think about who they are. One of these characters suspects the other of being unfaithful (in some way), and let's say the other character is (in some way) guilty. Write a dialogue exchange between these two where the sore topic is never referred to directly but instead simmers beneath the words spoken. Don't enter the thoughts of the characters. Keep the conversation focused on tuna steak, which they are having for dinner at the moment. If you exhaust tuna steak, you can move on to politics or movies. Silly as this sounds, see if the finished product doesn't have a ring of truth to it.
BAD DIALOGUE
Bad dialogue makes characters seem like puppets, mere creations of the author. If it sounds forced in places, or unrealistic, see if you can turn the dialogue around so it's not so obvious.
Another thing to watch out for is preaching in dialogue. Some writers once they gain your attention, use their stories as political platforms. Don't give your characters a podium from which to harangue the reader. If the reader feels that the author is making the character's voice the author's own opinion, the reader might feel manipulated and bored.
DIALECT
Dialect is like walking on eggshells--tread carefully. It's tough to do well, and even if it is done well it can be distracting. But it is possible to make dialect work smoothly if you focus on just giving a flavor of it--with key words and speech patterns and rhythms.
Another alternative to dialect is simply to state that the character has an accent or a dialect, or have another character comment on this fact, then write dialogue as you normally would.
If you have a character who stutters, avoid showing it in this distracting fashion:
"I--I--I'm not so--sure," Jon said.
Go for the simpler:
"I'm not sure," Jon stammered.
You also want to be fairly sparing with such circumlocutions as "uhm," "uh," "well," and "you know."
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